


Ghost Of An Archer.

by Thousandsmiles



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Clint Barton, Clint Feels, Does the major character death warning still count?, Gen, No Slash, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thousandsmiles/pseuds/Thousandsmiles
Summary: Clint wasn’t a particularly vain person but he always thought that when he died he would have left a trail of destruction before he went down. That he would have fought tooth and nail before being dragged from this world. Which is probably why he took so long to realize that he was dead.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel.
> 
> Takes place pre-Winter Soldier.

Clint wasn’t a particularly vain person but he always thought that when he died he would have left a trail of destruction before he went down. That he would have fought tooth and nail before being dragged from this world. Which is probably why he took so long to realize that he was dead. It had happened so fast that he hadn’t even known it had happened. The awesome Hawkeye hadn’t even seen his own death coming. Clint didn’t even want to think of what Stark would do with that fact.

In all honesty, when he first found himself floating in the air and then going through solid objects, like the building he tried to land on, his first thought was that he had somehow been phased to another plane. He blamed shield and the avengers for that. He couldn’t remember ever having being phased but hey, he understood that. Different planes of reality could do strange things to the brain right? So his next thought was to head to the avengers tower and see if Tony or Bruce could fix this. After all they must have already started right? Maybe they could still see him.

So he found the tower (it was hard to miss) and floated down through the roof and headed to the lab because that was where he expected Tony and Bruce to be. He drifted through the lab door mentally bracing himself for the blast of music that Tony surely had on. Only, there was no music, heck there didn’t seem to be any sound in here and Clint started to feel stirrings of foreboding because he had never found Stark’s lab to be quiet, even when the man wasn’t there. Something was always being fabricated or his bots were cleaning up some mess Tony had made.

Clint began to think that Tony wasn’t here, maybe the team had had to assemble, when he spotted movement towards the back of the lab. He drifted in that direction and found Tony Stark sitting on a stool and half slumped on the desk staring at a closed bottle of alcohol like he desperately wanted it but he couldn’t bear to drink it. Now Clint was sure something was wrong. All his senses were on high alert.

Now that he thought about it the tower seemed too quiet. Clint left Stark and drifted over to Bruce’s lab only to find it empty. He went through the tower searching for somebody but no one else was there. He stopped and thought for a moment. Steve and Natasha were probably at SHIELD. But Bruce usually didn’t leave the tower which begged the question where was he?  he could be at SHIELD too but Clint couldn’t get the look on Stark's face out of his mind. Something was wrong.

There was no one in the gym. On impulse Clint went to Peppers office on the lower floors. She was there handling the affairs of SI but her eyes were red rimmed and she wore no makeup. Maybe Tony and Pepper had had a fight and Bruce was trying to escape the tension. But Clint could tell that there was more. This was no fight with Tony. And Clint was wondering why Tony and Bruce weren’t trying to fix him.

On another impulse Clint dived down to the bottom floor and there he found Bruce. He was sitting on the floor of the hulk room clearly meditating. It was just as clear that the meditation was barely keeping the hulk in check. Well that answered why Bruce wasn’t helping fix Clint but what had happened to Bruce? Clint went back up to Peppers office and waved his hand in front of her.

"Pepper!" he said loudly but there was no response. She didn’t see him or hear him. Damn thought Clint. He had suspected it wouldn’t have worked but still. He stood and thought for a moment and then went back up to the communal floor and waved his hand in front of one of Jarvis sensors. Obviously had Jarvis been able to sense him he would have but Clint liked to cover his bases. There was no response. Clint sighed and debated whether or not he should stay in the tower. He finally decided that he should but after about half an hour he got bored and started drifting through the floors of SI exploring. Some of it was boring office stuff but others were pretty interesting.

Clint continued to drift between the floors until a picture of his face flashed on one of the tv on the floor. Surprised Clint went over to the tv and listened in. The reporter saying something about the country still in mourning for the fallen avenger and footage of people putting flowers on a memorial. His memorial.

The realization hit Clint like a raging Hulk. He had been phased to another plane of reality, only it was a one-way trip. He was dead.

Everything suddenly made a lot of sense. Peppers tears, Bruce’s reaction, Tony staring off in the lab. Natasha's disappearance. Clint fought to remember what happened but he couldn’t. He stood there in the hallway for a few moments before the emotional effects of the truth truly hit him.

He was up on the roof before he knew it, leaning dangerously over the edge and gasping for air. He stared down at the city below from his perilous vantage point and thought that maybe he should lean back before he fell and then he started laughing hysterically at the thought because it wasn’t like he was gonna die if he fell. He was already dead.

He didn’t how long he was up there half laughing half-sobbing in disbelief before he sobered. He was dead. Alright then. He hadn’t ever expected this but okay it was here. What does he do now? It’s not like there was protocol for if one died and woke up as a ghost. Natasha. He had to know what happened to her at least. His death would have affected her the worst he knew. He needed to make sure she was alright.

Four hours later Clint was back on the roof of the tower. Natasha had been cleared for active duty and was going on missions on a rampage. She was currently out of the country. Apparently, he had been dead for a little over a week. He had missed his own funeral.

With nothing else to do but wait until she was back in the country Clint hung around the tower. Eventually that turned into him hanging around Stark because he couldn’t bear Pepper’s tears and seeing Bruce go through so much pain as he struggled to keep himself in check was too much to bear as well.

Tony's grief was hard to watch too but it was a sort of driven grief. After the first few days of just doing nothing Tony had come alive with a sort of fierceness Clint rarely ever saw. He built and upgraded and built and upgraded and never drank and barely touched coffee, working at an unhealty pace. Clint could bear it as much as he couldn’t bear leaving them alone and drifting over the city even though it would have been a much easier thing to do.

After about a week of watching Tony though Clint had had it. He was not going let this go on. He sat on a table in Tony’s lab and concentrated. He had early on discovered that while he could sit or stand on things he couldn’t move them.  He was going to try and change that.

An hour and a half later a small wrench fell of the table. Tony looked up startled, frowned at the wrench but eventually decided that the wrench must have fallen on its own somehow. Clint smirked. And then celebrated. He drifted over to another table next to DumE and started the process all over again.

“Sorry little guy,” he told DumE, “you’re going to take the fall for this.”

Clint began to poke a slender tool on the table. More often than not his finger went through it but he concentrated, forcing himself to solidify for brief moments. The tool eventually clattered to the floor. DumE squealed in surprise and dumped fire foam on the tool.

“DUME!” yelled Tony.

DumE ended up in the corner and Clint was already working on another larger tool. Tony started to wonder if he was going mad. At the fifth time something fell down he asked Jarvis to scan for an intruder. Jarvis reported that there was no one there nor were there any strange energy signatures.

“However, sir the objects seem to be moving on their own.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

 “I couldn’t believe my sensors sir,” Said Jarvis dryly.

Tony cursed and called out "Ok whoever you are you better show yourself I’m not in the mood to play around. Clint knocked something over by mistake and before he could react one of iron man’s gauntlet had attached itself to Tony’s arm and a repulser blast hit him. Clint gasped expecting to feel pain and something happened. Then he realized there was no pain and that the blast had gone through him. Of course he was a ghost. Looking up realized that Tony looked like he had seen just that.

"Tony?" he asked.

Tony face was set into battle mode and he swept the area with his gauntlet. Clint slipped away behind Tony and to his surprise Tony shuddered and spun and fired again.

"Did you get that J?"he asked.

"Sir" said Jarvis, "there have been some slight energy readings on the very edge of my spectrum in two instances."

"Which end?"

"The higher one sir." Tony frowned.

"Whoever you are you better come clean now," he said warningly.

Clint hesitated and then spying a set of thin tools on another one of the tables he made for them and began pushing them into positon. A repulser blast went past him. But he kept moving them gritting his teeth in frustration when his hands went through them. A repulser blast went through him and he felt strange for a moment but he finished what he was doing and fled before he got hit again. Tony spun around the lab and began prowling around obviously trying to feel him out.

 However, Jarvis interrupted him.

"Sir I think you should look at the left table."

Tony frowned and then keeping an eye out walked over to the table and glanced at it. His face paled and his extended arm trembled as he read out what the tools spelt: CLINT.

"If this is a sick joke..." he began. But Clint sprinted back and carefully changed the tools. Tony stiffened but allowed it.

Clint got the tools to spell out: NO JOKE. AM GHOST. DONT SHOOT. IS CLINT. GOOGLE GHOSTS?

"Really featherhead you actually came back from the dead to haunt me?" said Tony going for nonchalant but Clint could hear his voice shake.

WITH MY COLD DEAD ARROWS.

"Hope you haven’t been watching me in the shower."

BETTER THINGS TO WATCH.

"What’s your access code to the tower?" asked Tony his voice trembling despite his attempt to be nonchalant. Clint sighed and began to write out his code in the tools. When he saw the code, Tony lowered the gauntleted arm.

"You're really here?" he asked, like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

IN THE SPIRIT.

Tony let out a half hysterical laugh and then picked up a starkpad opened the memo app and asked "can you use this?"

Clint’s eyes lit up and he went over and tried. His finger went through the pad a few times but he managed to type in YES. Tony grinned and then said "Jarvis! Compile everything we can find on ghosts. Use the sites that seem most professional and less whackjob." 

"As you wish sir." said Jarvis.

"Alright featherhead," said Tony rubbing his hands together, "Let’s see if we can do something about this communication problem." 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They tell Bruce.

 Ten minutes later Tony was reading out loud the information Jarvis had given him, from the starkpad.

"Okay it says here that ghosts usually are bound to a place or have an anchor in this world. They usually stay by this anchor but there are also free roaming ghosts. So which one are you?"

Clint thought about it and then typed in A BIT OF BOTH. TOWER MAY BE ANCHOR PLACE. I CAN STILL MOVED AROUND THOUGH.

 "Okay," said Tony. "Well I figure if you like concentrate on your anchor place, maybe draw yourself to it you might materialize. And don’t roll your eyes at me it’s worth a shot"

Clint did roll his eyes but also sat down and tried to do what he said. It took a few tries but after a moment Tony exclaimed "Whoa! I definitely saw that. Do it again."

So Clint did it again and again and after about half an hour he was plainly visible to both Tony and Jarvis. They still had a problem though: neither of them could hear Clint when he spoke even though he heard himself just fine. They went back to the pile of information to try and fix that with Clint mouthing words and Jarvis reading his lips and translating for him.

After a few moments though Clint noticed something wrong with Tony. His hands were shaking and his eyes were wide and roaming and he was trying to act like nothing was wrong but something was. "Tony?" he asked and Jarvis spoke for him. Tony turned to look at him and then his pale face paled even more and he went into a full-blown panic attack right there.

He gasped and put his hand to the arc reactor and slid down the desk to sit on the floor, his eyes wide and unseeing. Clint ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders and called his name. "Tony! Tony! Tony!"

 And for Clint, in his worry over Tony, it felt like he was trying to break a barrier but one he was slowly overcoming. It was drawing energy from him but also somehow making him stronger, more solid, more anchored.  

For Tony, it was like hearing a voice coming out the distance, slowly growing clearer and sharper until he heard it distinctly going "Tony! Tony! Dammit Stark snap out of it!"

Tony did snap out of it to stare at Clint who was on his haunches, gripping his shoulders, staring at him anxiously.

"What happened?" said Clint.

Tony blinked and swallowed hard. "I, ah, I was the one who found you."

 "Dammit Stark,” said Clint, "Why didn’t you say anything?"

"Trying not to think about it." Tony said. "When your comm. went down they sent me to check because I’d get there fastest."

Tony swallowed convulsively, turned white and then green and Clint grabbed the trashcan next to them and shoved it in Tony’s arms just as he threw up. Clint was relegated to rubbing Tony’s back as he threw up because he knew how much it hurt his teammate to heave due to the reactor. He vividly remembered the time Tony had gotten hiccups. Not good.

When Tony finished, he leaned back shakily and said hoarsely "There was barely anything of you left. I saw, I saw what was left of you splattered on the rooftop. Dammit Barton, there wasn’t anything we could have done. We didn’t even know when you got hit." He swallowed hard. “I am so sorry.”

"Hey," Clint said, "Don’t think about that now. And none of that apology crap. That’s no one’s fault. There are things no one can control and this just happened to be one of them, alright? So, let’s just agree it was a sucky thing to happen and get to work on turning me into a proper poltergiest."

Tony took a shaky breath and visibly pulled himself together. "Poltergeist, sure, but I think it’s time we brought Bruce in. He's been sulking for too long."

"Yeah," Clint agreed. “He has, hasn’t he?”

“Always got that martyr complex going on,” said Tony fondly.

“You’re one to talk. Which are you?” Clint snarked back in return, “The pot or the kettle?”

“The kettle,” Tony, reposted “They can be electric.” And Clint snorted with laughter.

They both took the elevator since Clint wasn’t sure how his new materialization was working out.

 "Natasha?" he asked as they were going down.

"Taking it hard," Stark replied. Clint winced but obviously could not blame her. He was, after all, dead. They reached Banner’s floor and Tony pressed a panel in the wall. Inside, Clint knew, it lowered the light gently in the room and then turned it back up. It was a non-startling way of letting Bruce or the Hulk know someone was there.

"Hey," Tony called "Lighten up Banner. I have someone here to see you and I know you’d want to see him. He’s coming in now," He continued before poor Bruce could protest. The door opened a crack and Clint slipped inside quickly.

"Go away whoever you are," said Bruce tightly, eyes squished shut. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

"Aww doc," said Clint "and here I thought you were missing me."

Bruce’s eyes flew open and he gaped in shock. "What? How? If this is some..."

"No joke doc," said Clint. "Still dead as a matter of fact. I'm just here as a ghost now. Stark and I have figured out to get me solid and audible but we thought we might need some help turning me into a decent poltergeist."

Banner gaped at him. Then he shook his head slowly, took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and replaced them. When he was satisfied that he wasn’t seeing things he asked:

"You’re a ghost?"

"Yep," said Clint cheerfully.

"Well," said Bruce, "being that I turn into a giant, green, rage monster I guess this shouldn’t be strange at all."

"Nope," Clint said.

"Poltergeist you said?"

 "Yep."

Bruce took a deep calming breath and gave Clint a shaky smile. "You have time for me to shower first?"

"Sure,” Clint said and grinned at him, “Just don’t take all day about it."

Bruce laughed and got up from the floor and then slowly approached Clint. He put a tentative hand on his arm and when it landed solidly he pulled him into a tight hug. Clint returned it and tried to ignore the doctor’s tears. After a few moments, Bruce pulled away and they got Tony to open the door. Tony grinned at both of them brightly and Bruce slugged him in the arm.

“That’s for being a jerk and not giving me a head’s up,” he said but his eyes twinkled with unspoken happiness and though Tony was rubbing his arm, his grin turned into a breathtaking smile, that reached all the way to his eyes and into the arc reactor. Behind them Clint shifted awkwardly, because he knew he was the reason for their ecstatic happiness and didn’t quite know how to respond to that bit of information.

“Come on,” said Tony cheerfully, “It’s Brucie’s bath time.” Bruce slugged him in the arm again while Clint gagged, because that sounded weirdly kinky.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They tell Steve and Natasha.

After that they sat down in Tony’s lab and discussed what to do next. It was eventually decided that the first order of the day was actually to call Steve and Natasha. Bruce had brought up the fact that Clint might not be here for long as ghosts may be dispersed if they happened to do whatever it was that was holding them back in the real world, like make peace ect.  Of course there was a chance there was nothing holding Clint back but they didn’t know at the moment and didn’t want to risk it. Tony had argued that maybe talking to Natasha might have been what was holding him back but Clint said he didn’t care and Tony gave up at that.  

Truth be told Clint was scared that he would be dispersed. It felt like he’d been given a second chance, strange as it was but he wouldn’t take it if it meant never speaking to Natasha again.

At any rate, it was decided to tell the both of them. There was also Pepper to tell. Tony suggested they waited until the work day was done before they did that. Since Steve was easier to get in contact with they called him first.

Luckily he had just returned from a mission. Like Natasha he had sought solace in work. Tony and Bruce implored him to come back to the tower and Steve eventually broke down to their (snark-laden and casual, respectively) pleas and said he’d be there in 20 minutes.

Then they turned their attention to contacting Natasha. This was going to be the hardest and they knew it. Going through official channels proved fruitless. Fury refused to even tell them where she was especially when they wouldn’t tell him why they wanted to call her, just that it was urgent.

Thus they were left to wait patiently for Tony to hack SHILED to get her mission particulars. While they were involved in doing this, Steve arrived at the tower. JARVIS directed him to the lab and Steve walked in looking tired and beat but there was more to it than just the tiredness that was because of a mission. He looked worn and so, so guilty.

There was pain in his eyes and pain in his posture and it was not physical. Then he saw Clint and his eyes rounded, his face paled and there was a tremendous crash. Tony, Clint and Bruce were all staring because shoot! Captain America had just dropped his shield! But Steve was staring at Clint and he couldn’t seem to get his voice to work for a few moments.

When he did he stuttered out "What? How? Clint? How, how..." He looked like a cross between a person who saw a ghost and someone who just discovered science had made resurrection possible. Standing between Bruce and Tony, Clint couldn’t blame him for the second one.

"You, you were dead," he said eyes wide.

 "Still am," said Clint.

That seemed to knock Steve out of his stupor. "What?" his eyes narrowed and his shock faded replaced by suspicion.

 "I’m a ghost,” said Clint.

Steve stared. Blinked a few times and said, "A ghost?” skeptically.

"Totally a ghost," said Tony. "Played poltergeist in my lab." Steve looked at Tony, appeared to dismiss him and turned to Bruce instead. "You believe this Dr. Banner? That it is him and not some, some dirty trick of, of someone?"

“He knew his tower codes, said Tony, “Nobody but me and you all know your individual codes. And I saw him fade into existance.” Steve took in what Tony said ad then re-focuesd on Bruce.

"Steve I’ve live in India,” he said at last, “I've heard some of their stories and seen some strange things. Believing in ghosts isn’t very hard for me. Besides I turn into the other guy and he practically defies science so... Yes I believe this. And I believe this is Clint and furthermore," he took a deep breath here, “The other guy thinks it’s Clint. And I’m fairly sure if it were anyone else, he would know.”  

Throughout this whole exchange, Clint waited patiently for Steve to make up his mind and didn’t grudge him anything because Steve was asking all the right questions. With the technology, available and the mutants around, someone could conceivably pretend to be Clint.

Tony put the final nail in the coffin though, figuratively speaking, when he said, “And I measured his archery scores he did when he was a ghost to when he was alive. They match. Also, the body recognition software says that it is Clint.”

Steve turned back to Clint and stared at him hard like he wanted to believe this was Clint even if it was just the ghostly form of him. Finally, after a full five minutes of contemplation he walked up to Clint, reached out and stopped just short of actually resting his hand on his shoulder.

Clint didn’t move and said with a crooked smile, “Not gonna bite you Cap. And I only shot you that one time for hugging me because I thought you were tackling me.”

Steve huffed out a laugh and then his hovering hand lowered. When his hand landed solidly on him, Steve’s face fractured with guilt, grief and happiness and he pulled the archer forward and hugged him tightly. Clint returned the hug knowing that his teammate needed it because heck if he was them, he'd need it.

Steve and Clint had just broken apart and Steve was scrupulously wiping his eyes when JARVIS announced he was into the SHIELD database. "What? Why?" demanded Steve.

Tony opened his mouth but Clint said quietly "Natasha." Steve deflated and nodded in understanding. They waited in silence while JARVIS and Tony went through the information and then when they found it, Tony had Jarvis patch them into Natasha's secure line.

"Romanoff," said Stark," you there?"

"What are you doing Stark? This is a secure line. Get off!" Natasha hissed.

"Wait don’t go its important!" Tony said sharply.

"What is it then?!"said Natasha calming even though her annoyance was still coloring her tone.

"It’s about Clint." The silence on the other side was deafening. "And you have to listen carefully and we're not trying to screw you over." The silence was cutting but she hadn’t hung up so it was good.

"He's here," Tony said and there was a sharp intake of breath but before Nat could turn off her comm. Clint spoke.

 "Tasha! Tasha listen to me. He's not  lying!"

There was a moment of breathless silence and then Natasha’s voice came over the line as shaken as they had ever heard her. "Clint?"

"Yes Tasha. I'm here." There was another pause then a smothered sob and an outpouring of Russian. Clint replied back in Russian and they spoke for a few moments. Clint was aware that she was testing him. She was even less trusting than Steve and had it been an imposter, no doubt they’d have been fooled by her performance. But Clint was no imposter and he knew the hidden code within her speech that they’d developed together and replied back in kind.

There was pause in the conversation, a natural break and then Natasha said, in English, voice wobbling for real this time, “It’s you. You’re back.” And Clint knew that she believed him. Most people would think that Natasha said her precious things in Russian, Clint knew she spoke them in English because America, America was where she’d found redemption, a chance at absolution, a friend, a home.

“How?” she said finally. They had to explain it all over again.

 When they had finished explaining, Natasha said that she would try to get back as fast as she could and cut the comms. That left one person who had yet to receive news of Clint’s ghostly return: Pepper. There was still Thor too actually but he hadn’t even heard of Clint’s death never mind telling him about his ghostification.

* * *

 

The team took the time to catch up with each other. Steve went to take a bath, Tony ordered food (because he wanted to see if Clint could eat) and they looked up some more stuff about ghosts and generally just spent time with each other, something they never thought they'd be able to do again. Steve returned from his bath and then just sacked out on the couch in the living room.

Food arrived about the time Pepper was due up so they set the table, woke Steve and waited for Pepper to come up. When the elevator dinged, the room held its collective breath as Tony went over to meet Pepper before she walked into the dining room. They heard him talking to her and then he guided her into the dining room. Her eyed rounded when they landed on Clint and she gasped and clung to Tony. She blinked owlishly at Clint a few times and then let go of Tony, ran over to Clint and threw her arms around him. Clint caught her with a grin and allowed her to hug him tightly and pepper him with kisses on his cheeks.

"H-how?" she stammered afterwards.

"Apparently," said Steve "he is actually a ghost."

"What?!" she said.

She turned to look at Clint who shrugged and said "yeah i'm still dead actually."

Pepper just stared at them. "You're a ghost?"

Clint nodded. Pepper took in a breath, appeared to center herself and then smiled and said, "Well I'm happy to have you, in any way we can." If Clint didn’t have a face made for poker, he would have blushed from the sincerity in her voice.

"Thanks Pepper," he said instead.

"Okay!" said Tony clapping his hands, and generally startling everybody, “I’m starving and if Clint can’t eat his share me and Cap can split it."

"Fine by me," said Cap grinning. Clint gave then the evil eye but knew most likely they would end up having his share anyway.

He hadn’t felt hungry since he became a ghost. But Tony had insisted on him trying if only to see if the food would fall straight through him. So they all sat at the table, dished out the food and then there was an anticipated pause as everyone waited for Clint to eat.

Clint sighed but decided to get it over with. He ate some of his rice, chewed it as usual and then swallowed. He waited to see if there was any strange splatterings on his chair. There was nothing. However he couldn't feel the food either.

"So you can eat," said Steve.

"I dunno Cap," said Clint. "I'm not feeling it. I don’t know where it went."

"It disappeared?!" said Tony. He sounded positively gleeful.

"I think so," said Clint.

"That's it," said Tony, "hand over your food. We can’t let good food go to literally nothing. Although it must be going somewhere because matter just can’t disappear. Is he like a black hole to the afterlife?"

"Really don’t want to think about it Tony," said Steve and Pepper slapped him on the arm. Clint rolled his eyes but pushed his plate in Steve’s direction. Steve gave him an apologetic smile and slid half the contents onto his own plate and passed the plate over to Tony. Tony cheerfully took Clint’s food. Clint still claimed his soda though and nursed it throughout dinner which was extremely pleasant. It felt good to be home. He just wished Natasha was here.

At the end of dinner they got a call from Natasha who told them she would be boarding a flight back to New York that night and should see them in about 14 hrs.

"That was fast," Tony commented.

 "Not surprising," Clint said in return. The others agreed.

Since Clint didn’t have to sleep he sat up with Tony in his lab until he threatened the man into bed and then spent the rest of the night chatting to JARVIS and sorting through the information on ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback please! I love feedback!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Kidwrangler who made me get off my butt and post this. Hope you all enjoy!!!

By the time morning rolled around the rest of the team woke up to Clint making breakfast. There was avid delight on every face except for Tony who hadn’t caffeinated enough to understand anything beyond the fact that he was in the kitchen and even then, his sole focus was the coffee maker. He made a beeline for it and pressed buttons automatically. Clint shook his head and continued flipping pancakes. The others set the table and when Clint finished the last pancake he dished them out onto the waiting plates.

Breakfast was happy and full of energy. Clint realised halfway through that it was because the others had been afraid that they might go to sleep and wake up to find him either gone or that it had all been a nice dream. He was touched.

After breakfast Steve cornered him to apologize profusely. Clint had to cut him short and assure him that it wasn’t his fault and to stop blaming himself.

“These things happen Steve,” he said, “You plan for everything you can but sometimes we’re just not enough and yeah it sucks when it happens. I don’t blame you. You wouldn’t want me blaming myself if I were in your position so let it go yeah? We’re all good.”

“You’re still dead,” Steve pointed out but there was humor in his eyes.

“And better than ever,” Clint shot back, “Hawkeye 2.0.”

Steve laughed and it was alright.

They played a game of poker afterwards because they both had amazing poker faces. Clint won this time around although he had a sneaking suspicion the Captain had let him win. Then he was monopolized by Bruce so they could go over various ghostly theories.

When Clint had finally made his escape somewhere between the European and Chinese myths of the dead, he figured he should go see Pepper and nearly scared her out of her wits when he dropped straight through her ceiling.

He apologized profusely and then brought her a cup of Clint -made coffee in apology. Pepper actually took a coffee break and they spent time chatting about entirely mundane things. It was nice, Clint reflected. He and Pepper hadn’t often spent time together but he’d always appreciated and admired her and she’d clearly felt the same towards him. His death made him feel like he should probably spend more time with all the people he cared about. It was very ironic and Clint did not miss that fact. But he was grateful that he got a chance to realize it in the first place.

He cycled back to see Tony, had fun playing with DumE and singing along with Tony’s rock collection and finally ended back up in the archery range.

He still had his bow. In fact he had come through with all the gear he was wearing when he had died. His quiver had three of his normal arrows left, two sonics, one explosive, one grappling and one net. He snapped open his bow and unlike the last time he was here, drew one of his arrows from the quiver that had been ghostified and shot it. He had expected it to go straight through but it didn't. It stuck firmly to the target. He stared at it and saw it waver and disappear but the hole it made was still there. Clint blinked. He reached back for another, only to frown and look over his shoulder

The arrow he had just fired was there. Clint stared at it and then carefully drew it out staring at it as he did so. The arrow came out and another was instantly in its place. An arrow was still in his hand. He fired the one in his hand and then the other after it. Both arrows hit the targets and then eventually disappeared. "Well," said Clint, "That’s interesting."

“I concur,” said JARVIS.

Tony was half delighted, half frustrated with the new discovery. Bruce was intrigued. Cap didn’t know what to think of it. Clint figured that having replenishing arrows definitely couldn’t hurt. They experimented a bit more and they discovered that just putting new arrows in the quiver did not make them replenishing. It was only the arrows he had died with and had apparently went through his ghostification with him.

Clint could change clothes but his combat gear disappeared when he took them off and instantly reappeared when he wanted them. Twice they reappeared when he didn’t, and he was suddenly restricted by too much clothes. Death, Clint figured, was really strange.

A few hours later though Jarvis announced that Natasha was in the elevator. They all hurried over to the elevator to wait for her. They had just managed to assemble themselves there when the doors opened and Natasha, looking weary and heartsore stepped out. Her eyes roamed the crowd of people and fell on Clint. Her eyes widened and she gave a little gasp, dropped her bags and went forward.

She reached towards him slowly as if she thought that if she moved to fast he would disappear before her eyes. She grabbed his face in her hands, gently at first and then tighter, pain and hope speaking volumes through her fingertips. And then when she assured herself he was really here she pulled him to her and hugged him, tears in her voice as she spoke rapidly in Russian. Clint replied to her the same way, hugging his partner and friend tightly.

He lost track of how long they stood there, just reveling in something they both thought would never happen again. He could breath in ‘Tasha’s scent and feel her muscles jumping under her skin while her silky hair tickled his cheek. He could fell her breathing him in, twisting head ever so slightly so that she could feel the rasp of his stubble against her cheek. Finally thought Natasha composed herself and pulled away.

She leaned back and put her hands on his face again and drank him in with her eyes. Clint let his own eyes show how he felt. It was not often that he ever let himself be this vulnerable, but for ‘Tasha, for this, he would. Natasha nodded slightly, all they needing to say, being done silently.

Then Natasha released him, turned to the others and gave them a tremulous smile and said "I don’t know about you guys but I’m hungry."

"Starving," said Tony right away. Steve took Natasha’s bags and they all wandered into the kitchen where apparently Tony had ordered chinese. They shared out the food and began to eat. Tony made frowny faces at Clint because all the food was disappearing to nowhere. Clint grinned and took a deliberate mouthful.

Natasha lifted an eyebrow and Bruce explained Clint’s disappearing act with the food he ate. Natasha made an ‘ahh’ face, shared a look with Steve and went back to placidly eating her food. As far as Clint was concerned, all was now right in the world.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to put this convo in a chapter by itself. Hope you enjoy!

Natasha found him in the pre-dawn hours. She sat down next to him on the parapet atop the tower. They gazed out at the city in silence for along time.

“How are you?” she asked him finally.

“I…” Clint took a deep breath. “I’m okay.”

Natasha looked at him.

“Mostly,” he amended. “Sometimes it just creeps back up you know?”

“Being dead isn’t something anyone would handle easily,” Natasha said.  “Gosh Clint I’m so happy you’re here but I don’t want you to feel trapped. If…If you need to go….”

“No!” Clint said sharply. “Shit Natasha no!” He shifted and griped her shoulders. “I don’t want to go. I don’t need to go! I..I want to be here.” She gripped his wrists in return and Clint could see how much it had hurt for her to say that, to offer that, to him.

He leaned forward and rested his head against hers. “I don’t want to leave you without someone to watch your back,” He whispered. He leaned back and then said more steadily. “ I, I’ve got things to do. Red in my leger still that I’ve got to wipe out ‘Tasha.” He gave a self-depreciating smile. “And this hero thing has gotten under my skin. I want to do more ‘Tasha. I want to help. I can’t do that if I’m dead.”

She gives a little huff of laughter but he sees her eyes lighten. “Defy death to save lives,” she murmurs back to him. She leans her forehead against his. “I’ve missed you Clint.”

“I missed you too,” he said. “I missed everyone.” He rubbed at his chest. “I didn’t think they’d gotten under my skin like that. I didn’t think I’d hurt because they were hurting you know? I’ve never had that with anyone else but you.”

Natasha laughed. It was lighter, brighter. Clint’s heart soared to hear it.

“It’s a curse we’re privileged to bear,” she said. “Not all monsters like us find asylum but we have. The avengers for all their faults are a place we can call home.”

It’s not often Natasha admits her feelings to the open air.

“Yeah,” he said, “They are, aren’t they?” He looked back out at the sleeping city. “I’m glad to be able to come home, even when I’m dead.”

“Home is where the heart is,” Natasha said softly. She gripped his hand and together they watched the sun come up.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and tell me what you all think!


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